The New York Times this morning floats the inevitable trial balloon that if Glenn Beck exits Fox News Channel, he might attempt branding a cable channel or expanding a subscription video service via the web. Team Beck is labeling this report “a premature injection of speculation and nonsense.” His insiders stress that Beck has a Fox contract that runs until year’s end and isn’t negotiating anywhere else. Beck’s contract negotiation comes amid somewhat declining ratings of his cablecast. Any launch of a Glenn Beck cable channel would be difficult — just ask Oprah Winfrey — but it would certainly be in keeping with Beck’s growing entrepreneurial appetite. Last year, we’d heard that an animated Family Guy-style primetime series about Beck tried to enlist Hollywood TV showrunners. It would revolve around the “world” of Glenn Beck and would have him doing his own voice, and maybe most of the voices in the sitcom. The idea was to establish him as a conservative answer to Seth MacFarlane. However, I heard that a problem was that showrunners who’d been approached about writing and producing the toon were resistant. “Lots of liberal comedy writers want nothing to do with Glenn Beck,” said one writer familiar with the proposed toon. “Writers who run animated shows are a liberal bunch, and Glenn Beck is the kind of guy they poke fun of.” When I called Team Beck about the venture, it was at first flatly denied. After more prodding over a few weeks, the response from Beck’s production banner Mercury Radio Arts was that there was in fact a distant associate out there discreetly shopping a show (they wouldn’t say whom), but without any official endorsement from Beck. But Team Beck didn’t dismiss the show, even one that was hawked under the auspices that he was involved. A good idea is a good idea, after all, and they were reserving judgment until seeing what package the producer came back with. We’re told now the cartoon never came together to anyone’s satisfaction, but it is an indication that nothing is out of bounds when it comes to building the Beck brand.

While it’s easy to pigeonhole Beck as purely political because of his on-air rhetoric, he asserted in a 2010 interview in Forbes that he was not political, and his business is entertainment: “I could give a flying crap about the political process,” he said. “We’re an entertainment company.” In a follow-up, Beck explained by the brand-minded Tyler Perry is his hero. Beck has already succeeded in a multitude of media venues: he’s got a highly rated radio show, has written several bestsellers, starred in a series of annual live show tours. Beck produced a one-night special film version of his book The Christmas Sweater, a quasi-autobiographical account of Beck’s troubled childhood told through a 12-year-old named Eddie. Beck played multiple roles in the film and shared what was described as his “most profound childhood memories, along with his philosophies on life, love and happiness”. Since 2005, Beck has toured American cities twice a year with one-man stage shows that mix stand-up comedy and inspirational speaking. This culminated in last August’s Restoring Honor rally Beck mobilized in D.C.

The recent speculation about Beck’s future entrepreneurial ventures intensified after word leaked that respected senior Fox News exec Joel Cheatwood may leave to join Beck’s Mercury Radio Arts to oversee the expansion of programming, online content, and other Glenn Beck-branded ventures. If Beck were to start his own cable channel, an animated show could be an attention-getting way to fill a programming slot. And, after being parodied on South Park and The Colbert Report and The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and Saturday Night Live and The Onion, this could be Beck’s chance to fire back and maybe poke fun at himself, his chalkboard, and self-described “doom room” conspiracy theories.

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Mencken wrote: "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." Nothing has changed since....

Robert

4 years

Glenn Beck for President. A lot better than the idiot we got in office. Bet this won't...

I hate the

4 years

My friend you may be sincere but GB is not. You say those criticizing Beck haven't watched...

Beck’s hands-on willingness in his brand building quest makes the launch of a cable channel intriguing. The question, though, is how much of Beck’s thunder comes from his Fox News platform, and how many of the faithful will care enough about ancillary ventures if that is gone?

39 Comments

Glenn should be the opening act for Charlie Sheen’s road show tour….it could have a shorter title…”Dumb and Dumbest”…or, “Worst Idiots in the World “.

Jena • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

Beck is like the youtube video of the chimp sniffing his ass finger and passing out. It’s entertaining for the bored.

cas127 • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

Keep telling yourself that, Jena, as your side loses more and more cultural saliency.

And what a mystery *that* is, with such intelligent, insightful analysis as you yourself provide.

concerned independent • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

Beck’s “entertainment” is misleading a nation of simple minded people who don’t fact check his ridiculous claims…having a place at Fox News was sad but understandable, but if his brand starts to move closer to the mainstream and through more outlets, that’s going to be very hard for me to handle. Beck is easy enough to dismiss and he gives a lot of ammunition to those eager to mock him, but the sad fact is that he does have a legitimate fan base which actually takes his hate-filled fear mongering as legitimate news. I’d like him to stay at Fox News and continue preaching to the choir.

Anonymous • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

I must believe there are more like you out there who see through Beck’s smelly finger rather than believe his audience (who continue to smell his smelly finger) will someday take control.

SinCityFinancier • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

Fact:
Glenn Beck’s cover story on Forbes Magazine was called “Crying all the way to the Bank”.
His radio show is 3rd most listed to in US and his corporation of dozens of staff generates 5 different revenue streams of at least $32M a year.

FauxNews • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

And yet he’s still a pointless douchebag

D • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

Oh, bollocks. Mike, you’re pulling punches here, and you shouldn’t. Nikki can eviscerate slightly mediocre ideas, and you’re tolerating a terrible one. This is a dude who has single-handedly started a national discussion about whether the Egypt uprising is a communist feminist planned parenthood plot. You’re going to let him get away with claiming “it’s all in good fun?”

I think someone is scared to offend the mouth-breathers that stream in from Drudge every tenth story. This site is so above than that.

hahaha • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

“This site is so above that.”
Sorry, D, — the recent splash of Charlie Sheen headlines would disagree. If Beck should be lambasted for raking in bazillions with his politically charged and bent rhetoric, then so should Bill Maher. Pundits are pundits regardless of what flags they fly.

I love how Liberals try to intellectualize this guy’s success and castrate it at the same time. Continue to be smug and continue to keep they hypocrisy obvious for the rest of us.

jhenson • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

Fuck that, this is a good idea. He makes money and this could make money. It’s at least worth a try.

Curtis Scoon • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

Wouldn’t surprise me if Beck lands on his feet. If it seems like a dumb idea it somehow becomes a hit. The dumbing down of America is in a free fall.

Magnificenthack • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

Isn’t Glenn Beck ALREADY a cartoon character?

Agent Assistant • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

And like Howard Stern, Beck protects the myth of his popularity by picking low level venues and trial balloons because the truth is he will bomb if anything requires ticket sales or true ratings prowess. Stern’s “Private Parts” was a very good movie that didn’t do the huge business that it was expected to. His TV projects never materialize, except for “Son of the Beach” which will never be feted at the Paley. Beck has lost his mojo. He’s a minor supporting player that was mistaken for a star. The only brand he’s pushing is loser.

cst • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

Why a cartoon, and not a puppet show? He actually DID one of those!
As for “cartoonists being all liberals”- well, Rush Limbaugh played himself on FAMILY GUY, and it was practicaly hagiography! Of course, MacFarlane’s HARDLY a “liberal”; he’s just an aetheist who tells dirty jokes and wants pot legalised- the instant the bucks started rolling in,the guy started voting Republican for the tax breaks. And he ain’t alone; the business is full of them. If Beck’s cartoon pitch bombed, it’s because nobody thought it was funny.

Patrick • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

I think a subscription service makes sense for Beck. Like Kevin Smith, Beck is becoming only relevant to his very narrow following of devoted and pretty much lacks respect from anyone else. Is this the future of media, where individuals that have limited appeal and credibility can survive and thrive by barricading themselves off from the rest of the media world? This Jonestowning of the media landscape could either serve to segregate dangerous voices from the larger consciousness or it could create cults. Again, a Kevin Smith “Red State” comparison seems apt here.

lu-iii • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

the single most hate-filled posts on a thread i have ever read on deadline.

absolutly pathetic pathetic.

sb • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

You must not have been coming here during the Silverman and Zucker era . . .

Getalife • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

Yawn…

G • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

You all prove everything Beck says! Elitist left wing pigs!

Jena • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

G, if the opposite of Elitist is ignorant, then I’m going with Elitist any day.

JG • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

I’m betting anyone bashing glenn beck here hasn’t watched more than 30 seconds of his show. The biggest charge anyone could make against him is that he comes off as that brilliant yet eccentric college professor who sees things differently and teaches you a thing or two about how the world really works. His work exposing SEIU, explaining the consequences and causes of federal, state and local fiscal recklessness, not to mention his historical lectures involving other historians about the founding principles of the country were all great. Good for glenn if he can actually get some scripted fare off the ground to bring balance to what’s currently on the airwaves.

I hate the things you say I shouldn't hate. • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

But, have you read the 2010 Forbes article where Beck says, “I could give a flying crap about the political process,” he said. “We’re an entertainment company.”

He doesn’t mean a thing he says.

Sonja • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

Last time I heard such vitriol, the subject was Sarah Palin.

Beck is a multi-media genius, whether you like it or not.

Joe • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

Genius ? I can think of many things he should be called but that wouldn’t be on the list

Sonja • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

His bank account speaks for itself.

G • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

You all prove that Beck is right. Hate filled elitist left wing pigs!

Jena • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

Hey, G! I guess you’re too ignorant to know how to spell your full name. Or are you one of the Men In Black?

Frank Tien • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

like most of the the Fox News personalities, they need to make money quick since a majority of their audience is elderly and ready to die.

Faux News • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

This poses an interesting question. Fox News has always been a cesspool-like repository for the dregs of humanity who have little or no journalistic credibility, a veritable last stop on the slow train to Nowheresville. So if you’re already at Fox and you leave, where do you go?

sTAN • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

I hope he jumps of a bridge & lands on Victoria Jackson!

Julia • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

Right with you, sTAN. (And if Beck does jump off a bridge and he lands on Victoria Jackson, the sound of that landing would probably sound exactly like that of a dog’s squeeky toy). Enough of this kind of “entertainment”. There are liars and bulls*t artists on both sides of the aisle making money off of those dumb enough to listen.

Can he please just go away and take bill o’reilly with him? I was a fan of beck when he was on headline news but he has become like this monster for lack of a better word.

interestedinthese responses • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

Aside from the personality, can you honestly say, dear readers, that you have listened to Beck regularly? If not, then you cannot judge.

Dale Latimer • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

Even my conservative-radio-kissing father, stuck with “Limbeckity” daily because the local station is owned by their syndicator’s parent company, hates when Beck and his dipstick cast drift into complete daffiness long about the third hour of the radio show…

drew • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

AAAAHHHH the much vaunted “progressive-liberal” tolerance on full display here…if u ain’t part of the sheeple progressive ideology, you is be an unedumucated idiot…full on alinsky tactics on here from you libs…with the help of folks like beck and breitbart…WE’RE ON TO YOU LIB PROGRESSIVES…GLENN BECK IS NOT GOING AWAY!!! sucks to be a wannabe intellectual conformist progressive!! :)

Bill Maher • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

Beck already is a cartoon.

Robert • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

Glenn Beck for President. A lot better than the idiot we got in office. Bet this won’t get posted.

jprfrog • on Mar 23, 2011 12:26 pm

Mencken wrote: “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” Nothing has changed since.